This invention relates to a method of manufacturing an electrical harness comprising wires connected to electrical terminals of a plurality of electrical connectors and to electrical connectors and terminals for carrying out the method.
The invention has particular application to the provision of electrical harnesses for electrical apparatus, for example for domestic television receivers.
We have described in our U.S. Pat. No. 3,772,571, a method of manufacturing an electrical harness comprising wires connected to electrical terminals received in terminal-receiving through openings in electrical connector housings, in which method the wires are initially laid out on a wiring layout board with the aid of wire guiding posts on the board, to form a desired wiring pattern for the electrical harness, with the wires extending through notches in the connector housings. Prior to the wires being dressed in this way, the housings are loaded with electrical terminals each comprising at one end, a receptacle for receiving a flat electrical tab and at the other, a socket for receiving a metallic wedge member. When the wires have been dressed, the wedge members are inserted into the openings of the housings so as to enter the sockets of the terminals, each wedge member trapping a wire extending through a pair of opposed notches in the housing, between the wedge member and the internal wall of the socket so that the terminal is connected to the wire.
This known method not only has the disadvantage, that the housings must be preloaded with terminals before the insertion of the wedge members, but that the insertion forces of the wedge members are such that it is necessary for the housings to be produced in the form of separate parts which are subsequently secured together about the terminals so that rigid shoulders on the terminals engage with rigid shoulders within the openings of the housings, in overlapping relationship to provide counterabutment means against the high wedge insertion forces.
It is desirable that such a method should be capable of being carried out with the aid of housings that can be molded in one piece rather than molded in the form of two pieces which must be subsequently secured together and that each terminal should comprise only a single part instead of a plurality of parts.